Run a piston engine on a live pressure-volume diagram, trace the four strokes into a closed loop, and bank the enclosed area as useful work.
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How to play
A heat engine cycles through four strokes, heat, expand, cool, compress, drawing a closed loop on a P–V diagram. The shaded area inside the loop is your work output. A ceiling rail marks the maximum work the second law of thermodynamics allows.
Slide the expansion-volume control to set how far the gas pushes the piston.
Watch the loop close and the enclosed area, heat in, and efficiency update live.
Push the area as high as you can without exceeding the Carnot ceiling.
Bank the cycle to score, then run a new one.
Controls
Desktop: drag the expansion-volume slider and click to bank the cycle; choose Gentle/Standard/Furnace and Daily/Practice.
Phone & tablet: drag the slider and tap the buttons, fully touch-friendly.
Tips & strategy
A bigger expansion sweeps more area, but efficiency is bounded by the temperature ratio, there's a sweet spot, not a free lunch.
Watch the Carnot ceiling meter; over-reaching past the ideal limit is wasted ambition.
Harder settings run hotter furnaces, raising both the potential work and the penalty for sloppy cycles.
What you'll learn
Carnot makes the thermodynamics of an ideal heat engine playable: every loop you draw obeys the real relations.
Skills: thermodynamics, heat engines, the Carnot cycle, physics
Best for: advanced high school / college
For parents & teachers: the thermodynamics of a heat engine.
About Carnot
Carnot makes the thermodynamics of an ideal heat engine playable: every loop you draw obeys the real relationship between work, heat and efficiency. It's an original, free browser game with three difficulties and daily plus practice modes.
A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.
